I wish I had the opportunity to use the N900. I still have a partially working N9 (the SIM holder lock is broken meaning I have to hold the SIM in to use it for calls). I still browse and post on HN using it on occasion.
There's a spring mechanism that pushes it out. It worked by pressing in to lock it and then pressing in again to unlock it. The cover is recessed relative to the case, so it would be a bit difficult to secure it with tape unfortunately.
I still have my N9 lying around somewhere - had to get the sim tray replaced two or three times but otherwise I loved it. How did you update the security certificates? I tried to boot mine up a while back but it was basically unusable on the web because of HTTPS.
I haven't updated the security certificates so far, bit I don't think that most of the TLS connection issues are due to expired CA certificates in the certificate bundle. I believe it's because it can't negotiate a mutually agreed upon cipher.
It still works with a few websites like this one. In fact, I'm using my N9 to post this comment :-).